The Killing Scripture Read online

  © Copyright 2017

  This book is protected by the copyright laws of the United States of America. Any reproduction or other unauthorized use of the material or artwork herein is prohibited.

  Disclaimer:

  The persons, places, things, and otherwise animate or inanimate objects mentioned in this novel are figments of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to anything or anyone living (or dead) is unintentional. The author humbly begs your pardon. This is fiction, people.

  "Rather than love, than money,

  than fame, give me truth."

  Henry David Thoreau

  AN ALICIA STONE NOVEL

  THE KILLING SCRIPTURE

  AFSHAN JAFFERY

  CONTENT

  Prologue

  1. On The Fence

  2. A Case Of Missing Books

  3. The Robinsons

  4. First Murder

  5. New Development

  6. The White Horse

  7. Second Murder

  8. Handcuffs And Keys

  9. Under The Red Maple

  10. Double Date

  11. Strikes Midnight

  12. A Plea For Help

  13. Concerning A Bullet

  14. Hornet’s Nest

  15. The Warsaw Connection

  16. Answers

  17. Final Resolution

  18. A Dangerous Disposition

  19. The Rabbit Hole

  20. A Family Man

  21. Talisman

  Georgestown 1: Bell, Book & Candle Booksellers

  PROLOGUE

  April 6th, 2016 - Warsaw, Poland

  Garret peeked in the back-view mirror to check flashing lights behind him. The night traffic on highway A1 seemed regular to him. He was driving a silver Galloper which he rented from a car rental in Calais. He had paid in cash that invited scrutinized looks from the guy in showroom. He could not afford to use credit cards now without endangering his life. His only hope to survival was to reach his destination in one piece.

  He checked the co-ordinates again; they were pointing to a small town north of London. He wondered what he would do after submitting his work. He was a scientist who recently finished his PhD in genetics from University of Warsaw. He had no future plans as of now. His friends at university asked him several times about it, but he never replied. He liked doing research work, but in present circumstances, he wondered whether it was the best course of action or not. That was before the arrival of Boogeyman.

  Boogeyman! Garret took a long breath and checked fuel. It was almost going out. He needed to stop to get fuel otherwise he would be stranded on a highway in a country where he didn’t know anyone except a co-ordinate.

  So, the boogeyman had finally come to the Warsaw and exterminated the whole division. That was his theory because he never checked back. He was sleeping in his apartment when got a call from Filip.

  “What’s up?”

  “Garret! Where are you?” Filip’s voice was shaking with panic and fear.

  “At home. Why?”

  “You need to get out of there. Immediately! We are exposed, all of us. He is coming.”

  Garret could tell by the hyperventilating voice that Filip was running. He turned to the brunette laying on his bed snoring contentedly. His mind was clear. Garret did not get panicked easily. He always kept composure and—a backup plan.

  “Where are you going?” he asked.

  “To the hideout. You also come fast.”

  There was no use of going to the hideout, but there was no point in telling this to Filip. They were exposed, all of them. By now, the boogeyman would had known the location of the hideout as well. Garret knew that the only real threat to them was Max, or the Boogeyman, as he was officially called. If he came after them, he would attack the database first, and then he would know everything; their addresses, their phone numbers, their bank accounts, and also the hideout. Staying away from the brothers was his best chance of survival.

  Garret was not a fighter. He knew he won’t stand a chance in a face-to-face combat. The most he could do to help his brothers was to secure his work. In wrong hands, his work could be used to kill millions. He had to make sure that the research would stay with his own people so he ran from his hometown, Warsaw. He had left his phone in his apartment along with his credit cards. He had a bag with burner phones, sufficient number of Euros, and a small medicine kit. He had also put canned food and water bottles in it.

  Boogeyman had some special interest in the brotherhood. He had made it his purpose of life to wipe out the brotherhood from the face of earth. Some people said he was also a brother and then he sold some researches to the Soviet government during the cold war. Poland was a satellite state of Soviet Union at that time, but it was against the brotherhood code.

  All the research work done by the brothers should have been the exclusive property of brotherhood. Nobody outside of the brotherhood should know anything about the brotherhood or the work conducted by the brothers.

  But that was just a theory.

  None of the young generation of the brotherhood knew anything about the Boogeyman and the old ones didn’t want to talk about it.

  He checked the GPS again. It would only take an hour more to him to reach his destination. A fuel station was getting nearer and he was also feeling hungry by now. He tuned the Galloper into the petrol pump to refuel it. He might be using the same to go to Vienna next. Taking gas from the dispenser, he was thinking about going in the foodmart to buy something when something hit him hard on his head.

  The last thing he remembered was the hose dropping down from his hand, and then he passed out falling on the concrete floor of the fuel station.

  1

  ON THE FENCE

  August 19th, 2016 – Georgestown, England

  Alicia was enraged, and half of her rage was about the fact that she was enraged on her birthday. She kicked her writing table and then chair, and then she felt a whim to kick herself.

  It had always been the worst day of the year—ever. She didn’t know what other people do on their birthday, but other people also indulged in things on the remaining three hundred and sixty-four days. The more she didn’t want to celebrate her birthday, the more her parents insisted. In her long twenty-six years’ life, which seemed really long to her, she didn’t remember a single birthday which was not miserable.

  Somebody tapped on the attic door, which was also served as her bedroom, and she tried again, helplessly, to get ready to attend her birthday party. Including her, there were total four permanent residents of Stone Manor. Usually, people find it difficult to live with two parents while they grew up, but she had to answer to three parents. The third parent, besides her biological ones, was her mother’s sister, Flora.

  Many years ago, Aunt Flora had left home to go on an adventure with her friends, and nobody heard about her for the next five years. Lucy, Alicia’s mother, was too busy in taking care of her permanently enraged and permanently unemployed husband to bother about anyone else.

  Five years later, she appeared on their doorstep and claimed to be a ‘clairvoyant.’ She adjusted with the nasty temper of Steve as comfortably as an old shoe. It was no easy job to live with her father. When Alicia was young, she had seen her mother crying silently in the kitchen too many times to count. The worst thing about the situation was that she never welcomed Alicia in sharing anything with her. Every time she tried getting close to her, she scolded her away until she stopped trying at all. As an only child, Alicia wanted to have a healthy relationship with her parents, but she guesses, after reaching a certain age, that her parents were not even comfortable with each other so what were the chances for her.

  The reason Stone Manor opened its door fo
r Flora was that Steve was jobless and Lucy was trying to have another stream of income in the household. Alicia was in school when Flora moved in. Alicia had to move to the attic because Stone Manor had only two bedrooms in it. She didn’t mind living in the attic; on sunny days the large windows filled the attic with bright light. It had a small bathroom. The best part was that she didn’t have to hear any loud noises or fights anymore which happened all the time in the house.

  Flora and Lucy were as different from each other as night and day. Where Flora was heavy, warm and kind, Lucy was lean and had a mean outlook on life. Living under the constant fear of her husband had taken away every ounce of affection and warmth from her personality. Lucy’s nagging skill was limitless, once she set her mind that Alicia must do it, nothing could stop her; however, things were changed since Flora came to live with them.

  Flora criticized no one openly, but she had a unique way of solving problems and convincing people with a smile. These days, she was the primary breadwinner of the family. She had opened her divination shop just after few weeks of moving in. Whether it was recession or inflation, or probably both, she was making more money than Lucy who taught at a school. It seemed to Alicia that people wanted to know their future, literally, at any cost.

  Thinking about Flora, Alicia tied her hair mercilessly in a knot and took a deep breath. She prayed on every birthday to not be in the same house next year, but the situation was not changed. She knew what happened on every birthday and she knew that it would keep repeating until she buckles up and moves out.

  ————

  She braced herself and stepped down from the attic. She found them all gathered in the living room as usual with a cake placed on the center table. Steve was watching the news with a grimace which was a permanent part of his face. Lucy was knitting a scarf, sitting beside Steve, darting cautious glances at him occasionally. Flora had spread a planetary chart on the table in front of her, which was a ritual she did on her birthday, and she looked worried, but she always seemed to be concerned whenever she read Alicia’s future.

  She set in front of them with hands in her pockets and looked at them with dead eyes.

  “We were calling you since hours,” Lucy said in a disapproved manner.

  “If you don’t want to celebrate your birthday, just tell us. At least we will not waste our time for you.” Steve said in a busy tone as if he was responsible for running an entire company.

  Flora picked the chart and folded it neatly. She was not looking happy.

  “Now bring a knife, how would you cut the cake without it?” Lucy taunted again.

  “She has some mental problem ... doesn’t have common sense.” Steve muttered behind her back when she was going to the kitchen. When she came back, she didn’t wait for her parents to leave their activities. She made the pieces, filled the plates and put a plate in front of everybody. Lucy quickly picked the plate and took a mouth full of cake. Steve looked at her furiously.

  “Why are you eating this? Can’t you see it is a chocolate cake?” he yelled at her.

  Lucy put the plate back on the table and said in a guilty voice, “it is tasty.”

  “Will you eat poison if it is tasty enough?” he was annoyed; his face was turning red.

  Alicia took her plate and ate. Flora was also chewing her piece without saying a word. She was deep in thoughts today. Usually, she stepped in if Lucy and Steve crossed a line with Alicia, but today she was silent.

  Only Alicia understood the real reason behind the anger of Steve. It was a long time ago when she was still in school when she had first tasted a chocolate cupcake. She liked it so much she asked for a chocolate cake on her next birthday. From that day on, Steve made it his job to hate chocolate from the deepest corner of his heart. Whether it was a cake, ice cream, meringue or any other dessert, if there was chocolate in it, he hated it.

  Unfortunately, Steve’s idea of hate differed from other people as it was both visible and audible. Put something in front of him he hated, and his face turned red. He would curse the people who did it, and would also try to bully them into not doing it.

  Flora tried her best to keep both sides happy most of the time, but Steve was a perpetually unhappy person. The only thing which made him happy was the misery of his family. When Alicia was in school, long before Flora came to live with them, Lucy slipped on the sidewalk one day and got a fracture. Later Alicia heard her father talking to the neighbor that it was a good thing because now she would understand the importance of obeying her husband. Apparently that day Lucy went to her friend’s house, and Steve was not in favor of it.

  Steve was not only anti-social himself, but he wanted every person in his household to be anti-social as well. When Alicia made her first friend in school, she was excited and told everybody in the house. Steve yelled at her and cursed her in every word he had in his limited and profane vocabulary, most of them were not appropriate for a child. He told Lucy to watch her or she would become a slut following her friends, to which Lucy paid little attention. Lucy liked to socialize and tried to make as many friends as possible behind her husband’s back.

  Alicia tried to finish her serving as soon as possible. The Chocolate Fudge cake was delicious as Flora had made it herself. She collected the plates and turned to the kitchen feeling relieved as it was better than her last birthday where there was a fight went on for four-to-five hours when Lucy said from behind:

  “Come back. We need to talk.”

  She knew very well what they need to talk about. When she came back, Flora was saying something in slow voice to both, and Steve’s face was getting darker with every second. The only reason Steve tolerated Flora because she was the hen who laid the golden eggs.

  “What do you plan to do next?” Lucy asked as if she was asking something after a while.

  “Looking for a job which I am already doing.”

  “You are doing it since last four years.” Steve tried to keep the poison in his tone to the minimum, but it still stung.

  “What have you thought about marriage?” Lucy asked.

  “I don’t want to get married.” She said in a matter-of-fact tone. She might be indecisive about many things in her life, but she knew that she was not ready for marriage yet.

  “Do you have a boyfriend?” Lucy asked. “If you have one, you can tell us.”

  It was much easier to pretend she was still sixteen than to realize that she was a fully-grown woman and still had to answer these ridiculous questions.

  “I stay at home all day. How can I get a boyfriend?” she tried to stay patient.

  “You have internet. You might have one on Facebook.” Lucy was still suspicious.

  “Then I would have told you about that.” She stared at the faded yellow print on the brown carpet.

  “There is a guy, one of your father’s relatives. He is of the right age, and he is also looking for a bride.” Alicia could not be interested in any man at this point, rather the one his father liked, but she knew it was much better to handle her parents without getting emotional.

  “What does he do?” she asked.

  “He runs a business with his brother,” Steve spoke this time.

  Flora intervened. “At least tell her the truth.”

  Lucy and Steve looked at each other with a distinct air of doing something very uncomfortable.

  “He doesn’t have a job, but his brother is a business owner, and they have this big house which must be worth in millions.” Lucy was fond of big houses. The double storey Stone Manor was hardly accommodating four people at a time.

  Alicia rubbed her forehead with the tips of her fingers. “How will he make a family in this situation?”

  “He wants a partner with a full-time job, and he is ready to be a stay-at-home parent,” Lucy said.

  “All right, then tell him that I also want a partner with a full-time job, and in return, I am ready to be a stay-at-home parent.” Alicia kept her calm.

  “Why you want to make everything
so difficult for us? Don’t you feel pity for us a little bit?” Lucy burst with anger finally. She was half-crying, half-raging as if she didn’t know which approach would work best on her daughter.

  “What have I done? I am looking for a job, and I don’t want to get married. What’s the problem with it?” Alicia defended herself, “why do you always react as if I have done something wrong with you?”